Category: 5. Entertainment

When Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco started working on the first season of Platonic, they thought they were writing an anthology series. The concept they originally pitched to Apple TV+ was built around one season that would follow Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne‘s friendship, with subsequent seasons featuring entirely different stories and casts — like a period piece about women’s and men’s colleges becoming co-ed campuses in the 1970s and a work-wife/work-husband story. Then, about halfway through production of the first season, they realized they were having way too much fun with Rogen and Byrne to move on.

“They have such amazing chemistry together, and it was such a great experience, that we decided to ask them if they would be open to doing more, and they said yes,” Stoller tells THR. “And Apple, rightly so, felt like they were the show’s identity. I remember they said, ‘Who is going to want to watch a season two without them?’”

What that revelation meant for the show’s creators — who are also married and have two children together — was that they now had a brand new, and bigger, challenge as they started working on season two. “We had to blow up this neat little bow we’d originally tied at the end of the season,” says Delbanco. “We had told a complete story. But it wound up being a great creative exercise — we had to figure out, one chapter of their life is over, so now what are they doing to do? And through that we realized that where we first thought of the show as one snapshot of one time in their lives, we could actually tell stories about these two forever.”

Fans will get to see the fruits of that labor when the second season premieres on the streaming platform on Aug. 6. The show sees Rogen’s Will getting ready for his wedding to Johnny 66 CEO Jenna (played by Rachel Rosenbloom); Byrne’s Sylvia serves as his event planner as part of her new career and struggles to balance the work with her own marriage. Here, Stoller and Delbanco preview the new episodes.

How did your decision to extend the story of Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s characters beyond one season affect your plans for the original ending?

DELBANCO In our original conceit, we thought that Seth’s fiancé would get pregnant and they would announce that at their engagement party. That would have been hard to structure a season two around, because then he has to stay living with her in San Diego — we didn’t want him to have to walk out on his family in order to get back to L.A. and have fun again. We were worried about likability. (Laughs) Plus, the odd-couple dynamic is what is so fun about the lead characters, that she has a family and he doesn’t.

After watching Seth and Rose embody the characters, and their dynamic, during the first season, did that change anything about the way you approached writing the characters?

STOLLER We knew them well enough from working with them before that we really were writing season one with their performances in mind. There’s still a lot of trial and error that goes into figuring out a show, so I’d say the second season felt easier and smoother. I think we also figured out what makes Luke McFarlane’s character funny, and what his dynamic with Rose should be. And we were surprised by how great Rose’s physical comedy is. A lot of times those big, juicy, stupid set pieces go to men. In season two, there’s a scene where she gets blown backwards by the hose of beer. She gets abandoned on a kayak on the L.A. river. And Seth would pitch it that way, he’d say it’s funnier if she does it. Like the special K drug scene in season one.

What is your ethos for writing the conflict on the show, specifically between Seth and Rose? As a viewer, it feels like there are certain lines that they never cross when they’re fighting.

STOLLER Something we discovered in the first season and brought into the second is their conflict is always that they are mad at themselves about something and the other person is calling them out on it. They’re not always totally thoughtful about each other’s feelings, but what they really get mad about is their own stuff that has nothing to do with the other. I find that really true to life.

DELBANCO Some of my favorite scenes when I’m directing are the two of them fighting, because they do it in such a funny way. Maybe this is the admission of a passive-aggressive person, but there’s a wish fulfillment for me in the way they just have it out. There isn’t a lot of simmering.

STOLLER And a lot of the writers room time is spent figuring out what is their core personal problem that the other one can help them with — that’s another wish fulfillment, that a close friend can help you with whatever you’re going through.

I want to ask you if the character of Jenna, who plays Seth’s fiancé, is meant to be unlikable, but I’m also loathe to use that very loaded term on a female character.

DELBANCO I mean, I don’t think we felt like we were creating a character that we would want to hang out with.

STOLLER She’s nice, but basic.

DELBANCO She isn’t cool and fun the way that Sylvia is mean to be cool and fun. We were not trying to destroy her or make her seem like the bad guy in any way. We were trying to show those times when your friends get engaged to people and you’re like, great, now I have to hang out with this person every time I want to see my friend.

STOLLER Rachel Rosenbloom is super cool herself and so good at acting that I would forget that, and we’d cut, and she’d be so cool.

Aidy Bryant joins this season; did you write that guest role for her?

STOLLER It started as one of those parts that just gets the job done, and then when we asked Aidy to do it we rewrote it for her. Her pacing, the way she delivers her lines, is so off-kilter and there’s an unpredictability about it that I absolutely love. We also feel like we all know this person. She created a character that’s very familiar.

She works in marketing for a studio, and one of the young stars has a pretty non-PC sense of humor. Is he also based on people you know?

DELBANCO We’ve been fortunate not to work with jerks. We were trying to capture the kind of alt-comedy joking around that they claim is pushing boundaries but is actually just misogynistic. We didn’t want to be preachy, but that is something that I certainly see happening. The core of that story is a famous young actor and the invisibility of being a middle-aged woman, and that is something very real that I have encountered. It’s that feeling of, I could meet you a thousand times and you barely say hello to me.

STOLLER That debate that Sylvia and Will have, where she’s like why will he only text you and not me and Will’s like, who cares? That’s a debate we have had, where I’ll be like, if the guy doesn’t want to talk to you then why do you want to talk to him?

DELBANCO And it’s like, it’s still insulting. I’m still deeply offended. I don’t want to talk to him, but how dare he.

It reminds me of that great moment in season one, when Charlies’ boss doesn’t remember Sylvia’s name…

DELBANCO We did wonder, are we retelling a story from season one? But then I was like well, I’ll tell this in every season of everything we ever write for the rest of time, because it’s that evergreen.

There’s also some really juicy conflict within the marriage storyline, between Rose Byrne and Luke McFarlane’s characters. Can you talk about that?

DELBANCO That was one of my favorite parts of this season. It was all about Luke wanting Rose to read his book, and her trying to balance what she owed him versus her own anger about what he owed her. There’s a scene in the kitchen where she starts out being really apologetic. But he’s really mad, and says something like, “I never ask you for anything and you couldn’t even do this one thing for me.” And she’s like, “Well you may ask for nothing, but here are 15 things that I’m doing today, none of which you’ve ever thought about or thanked me for.” It’s a very real thing in the adult business of being married and having a family, and I feel proud of the way that dynamic plays out on the show.

Last season had a fair amount of L.A.-specific running jokes, and this year has elements like Seth’s character hating the Coco delivery robots and an episode dedicated to the horrors of the L.A. river. How do you decide how much L.A.-ness to imbue?

STOLLER We always want the show to really be about this place, and a lot of the ideas come up organically. The kayaking episode came about because one of our writers who is an old friend of ours was talking about how great the L.A. river is, and then I went there with our kids and it was not. It was desolate. So I came back on Monday and just made merciless fun of him, and that turned into us realizing oh, we should put this in the show.

How important is it to you that the production be hyper-local?

STOLLER We direct every episode, and we simply couldn’t do this job if it wasn’t here. We have kids and they’re in school. Sony and Apple were really cool about it. I’m always a little frustrated with the way that things are budgeted in this industry, because you actually do get tons of invisible savings by shooting here. You get the best crew in the world, and that saves you time. You get actors who are willing to work for less because they don’t have to get on a plane or be away from their families. Fortunately our studio partners on this show totally got that.

Nick, you have a recurring role in The Studio. Was that payback for Seth doing your show?

STOLLER He told me he’d written me into an episode, and I thought I was just a placeholder. I assumed he’d rewrite that a million times and I’d be replaced. He kept telling me it was really happening, and then eventually he was like, seriously, these are your filming dates. I thought the whole storyline was so funny, and I really was just hired to fulfill the vision that he and Evan wanted.

DELBANCO He was shooting it while we were in the writer’s room for season two of Platonic, and the writers’ room is hard and not that fun. It’s a slog and it’s intellectually and creatively taxing. So every time Nick was like OK, I have to go to Vegas to be in The Studio, you could just see the glee.

STOLLER I felt like a baby, in a good way. They did everything for me. I was like, where should I stand, what should I do? They do your hair for you. I’ve been approached more about that role than about anything else I’ve ever done.

Does your taste in fragrance change with age? Actor, singer, and Rare Beauty founder Selena Gomez thinks so.

“The last time I did a fragrance, I was about 18,” the star says while Zooming in from her Los Angeles home. “I knew that I wouldn’t do another one until the time was right.”

And now, that time has come: Meet Rare Eau de Parfum, a gourmand fragrance announced today and officially for sale on August 8. “Some of my best memories were made while I was creating this scent in a little test tube,” Gomez says. “I got engaged, celebrated my birthday. It’s something that really feels like a piece of me and embodies the place of life that I’m in right now.”

For the star, that place is soft and cozy: the scent is filled with notes of caramel and vanilla—“warm with just a touch of spice,” she says—along with sandalwood. It was named after her 2020 song “Rare.”

Another special aspect of the fragrance is its bottle, which was designed with accessibility in mind. “I have dexterity problems from my lupus, so sometimes it’s hard for me to do something like open a bottle of water,” Gomez shares. That’s where the Made Accessible Initiative at Rare Beauty, along with the Casa Colina Research Institute (an organization that works with patients who suffer from dexterity issues), came in to help. “We worked with hand therapists to design the bottle, so almost anybody can use it.”

These days, Katharine Hepburn is revered as a progressive icon of Hollywood’s golden age, an androgynous (and possibly queer) fashion rebel whose seven best actress awards have yet to be topped at the Oscars. But back in 1938, only six years into her illustrious career, she was branded as “box office poison”.

She was a star ahead of her time, her domineering screen presence registering as shrill and petulant by the tail end of the 1930s. After the box office disappointments of Bringing up Baby and Holiday – both now canonised romcom classics – she retreated from Hollywood and signed on to a new play penned by her friend Philip Barry: The Philadelphia Story.

Like its film adaptation, Barry’s script centres on Tracy Lord, a stuck-up socialite (easily read as a stand-in for Hepburn herself) set to marry a wealthy politician, only for the wedding to be upended by the arrival of two competing romantic prospects: her ex-husband, CK Dexter Haven, and tabloid reporter Mike Connor.

The production was a runaway success on Broadway, and Hepburn soon took the reins of a film version, for which she brought on her trusted collaborator George Cukor (A Star is Born, My Fair Lady and countless more) as director. Her initial choice of co-leads – Clark Gable (Gone with the Wind) and Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) were vetoed. But it’s hard to imagine a more dazzling collision of stars than the eventual casting of Cary Grant (Charade) and James Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life) as Dexter and Mike respectively.

Across their four collaborations, which culminated in The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn and Grant would continually redefine one of the finest pairings in romcom history. The former’s strong-willed, fast-talking women bulldozed over lesser leading men, but were perfectly parried by the slinky yet similarly imposing Grant. As embittered, sniping exes, they effortlessly locate each other’s pressure points – Dexter’s alcoholism, Tracy’s performance of invulnerability – but they share a private camaraderie.

It’s James Stewart’s Mike, though, who guides the film’s sweeping romantic moments (and sets the benchmark for drunk acting). The night before the wedding, he shares a poolside flirtation with the bride-to-be that evolves into an exhilarating declaration of love, powered by Stewart’s earnest intensity. “You’re lit from within, Tracy. You’ve got fires banked down in you, hearth fires and holocausts,” he beseeches. Cukor’s rapturous direction presses into both actors until they’re framed in glazed, moonlit closeups, Hepburn’s eyes and beaded gown twinkling irresistibly. She’s every bit the goddess that he sees.

But the film doesn’t allow her to bask in the image for long. The Philadelphia Story’s success hinges on Tracy’s humbling. She lowers herself from her own lofty esteem to eventually find love among other mere mortals, catering to the public’s desire to see Hepburn taken down a peg. There’s maybe some truth to Kazuo Ishiguro’s dismissal of the film as “a really nasty piece of work”, especially considering how the screwball comedy traditionally revolved around stories of men being cut down to size.

I think the screenplay deserves more credit for its intricacies: at each corner of the love triangle is a deeply fallible character who hides behind various defence mechanisms. Tracy’s eventual happiness is entirely her own choice; she only submits to love upon finding the one person who can recognise and accept her faults.

In a subgenre defined by its memorable female leads, Tracy Lord offers one of the more nuanced takes on the screwball heroine. She’s a spoilt brat, an arrogant intellectual, an impervious fortress – and under Hepburn’s command, you can’t help but fall in love.

• The Philadelphia Story is available to stream on HBO Max in Australia and available to rent in the UK and US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here

Craig Mazin and John August may lend their storytelling expertise while hosting their podcast Scriptnotes, but now the hosts are ready to offer that knowledge in book form.

The Hollywood screenwriters will release SCRIPTNOTES: A Book About Screenwriting and Things That Are Interesting to Screenwriters, based on their hit podcast by the same name, offering an “ultimate guide for writing screenplays or building a screenwriting career,” The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively announce.

On their podcast, Mazin and August discuss “everything from writer’s block, to getting started in the industry, to the vagaries of work-for-hire and copyright law,” all the while sharing “their expertise and best tips for working in film and television.” For their podcast they have spoken to a myriad of entertainment figures, including Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Michael Schur, Rian Johnson, Aline Brosh McKenna, Ashley Nicole Black, Seth Rogen and more about the process of making a great script.

Now, in their first book, August and Mazin “draw on more than one thousand hours of Scriptnotes podcast conversations, as well as their own storied careers, to help readers begin, refine, and sell their own scripts.” The book will be “part writing class, part informational interview with the best creators in the business.”

The book will highlight the basic rules of screenwriting, the craft of creating a “compelling story with captivating protagonists, worthy antagonists and a sound structure” and give an overview of the business of pitching a script and the “do’s and don’ts of working collaboratively on a project.”

“After 700 episodes, we’re excited to extend from the digital world into atoms. Sure: we’ve made T-shirts. And drinkware. And thumb drives. But you can’t put those on your shelf to show off on a Zoom call. The orange Scriptnotes spine stands out, like that black CENTURY book everyone has but never read. Plus, our book turned out great and people will get a lot out of it. So they should actually read it, not like that CENTURY book,” Mazin and August said in a statement to THR.

“Essential for veteran and novice screenwriters, film buffs, and anyone who enjoys analysis of iconic movies, Scriptnotes is a one-of-a-kind resource that provides exclusive access to the screenwriting process—and will inspire anyone ready to pen their own successful screenplay,” Crown said of the book.

Scriptnotes will be published by Crown in a deal negotiated by Jodi Reamer at Writers House Literary Agency for North American rights.  

Among the screenplays August has written are scripts for Charlie’s Angels, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Frankenweenie and Aladdin. Meanwhile, Mazin’s credits include being the creator and showrunner for acclaimed and Emmy-winning series Chernobyl and The Last of Us. His feature credits also include The Hangover Part II and III and Identity Thief.

Both are former members of the WGA Board of Directors.

SCRIPTNOTES: A Book About Screenwriting and Things That Are Interesting to Screenwriters will release on December 2.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday unveiled its post-split leadership plan, but absent from the detail was any mention of the Warner Bros International Television Production studio.

Although WBD‘s American studios and production divisions are being folded into David Zaslav’s new Warner Bros. business, we can reveal that the London-based WBITVP will, in fact, fall under the Discovery Global biz, which will be led by current WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. The separation is expected to close in mid-2026.

We understand Warner Bros and Discovery are moving towards post-split agreements on Warner formats that WBITVP already sells on the international market.

Several sources alerted Deadline to WBITVP’s post-split shift upon yesterday’s announcement, and a rep for WBD confirmed the decision. It may seem surprising that the international studio will now be separate from the likes of Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group and DC Studios, but insiders noted that the move is a logical one given that Discovery Global is international-facing. “One positive is it will have to be Euro-centric,” said one source in the continent.

Furthermore, WBITVP already has a strong relationship with current WBD International President Gerhard Zeiler, who has become Discovery Global’s Chief Content Officer plus President in the U.S., UK and Germany. WBITVP President Ronald Goes is close with Zeiler, and the move allows the pair to continue working in lockstep, while continuing to work alongside Andy Zein, who is EVP Creative, Format Development and Sales.

Sources said they expect more information on WBITVP’s post-split future in the coming days but downplayed the idea that there will be layoffs or mergers from within. One speculated that there may have been a tussle between Warner Bros. and Discovery Global over where WBITVP would sit. “It’s flattering that we aren’t just being shipped off, but it does seem right to be in this [Discovery Global] part of the business,” said the insider.

Programming issues

WBITVP represents the rights to numerous Warner-created shows on the international market and makes the likes of The Bachelor, FBoy Island and Impractical Jokers via production hubs across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. In the UK, it owns First Dates producer Twenty Twenty, Who Do You Think You Are? maker Wall to Wall and The Repair Shop indie Ricochet. Also among WBITVP’s catalog are 25 scripted formats, with several coming from the U.S., such as Gossip Girl, The O.C. and The Mentalist.

WBITVP’s central team, which is primarily based in Old Street, London but also has staff in the U.S., has more than 50 employees on the books, according to its website. We understand WBITVP will be staying put at its current base, where it and CNN Worldwide, which is also moving to Discovery, are housed.

Zeiler the big winner

Zeiler appeared a big winner out of yesterday’s post-split announcement. The WBD veteran has taken on the U.S. President role at Discovery Global, working closely with Wiedenfels at the top table on strategy. WBD LatAm and U.S. Hispanic boss Fernando Medin steps into his President of International shoes, and we understand his post will focus on territories elsewhere and finding new revenue streams for Discovery’s local businesses.

The likes of U.S. Ad Sales President Ryan Gould, distribution boss Scott Miller and content strategy EVP Fulvia Nicoli will all report into Zeiler. Other notable international names moving to Discovery include Kasia Kieli, who has retained her role as President and MD, Poland and CEO of Polish network TVN.

Following a period of intense speculation, the WBD split was revealed last month. The seismic move separates the company along similar lines to rival Comcast’s spinning out of its cable networks from NBCUniversal. Lionsgate’s split from Starz was confirmed in May.

Broadly, the separation of studios and broadcast networks from cable business is seen by most leaders and analysts as part of future-proofing against an increasingly dominant set of digital-first rivals such as YouTube, Netflix and Amazon. Streaming’s rise and the continued decline of linear television have left investors confused and stock prices floundering, even with cable networks still posting very healthy profits.

“By operating as two distinct and optimized companies in the future, we are empowering these iconic brands with the sharper focus and strategic flexibility they need to compete most effectively in today’s evolving media landscape,” Zaslav said at the time.

Warner Bros’ former parent, WarnerMedia, and Discovery first united under the latter’s long-serving chief, Zaslav, in April 2022. This formed the WBD business, which is now set to break apart again.

We’ve reached out to WBD for comment.

Key Facts

What Are Critics Saying About “weapons?”

Lyvie Scott, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for Inverse, said “Weapons” is “haunting and cerebral as it is almost cartoonishly funny,” praising the movie’s balance of “gory shocks” and “visceral physical comedy.” Chris Evangelista, a critic for the horror movie website SlashFilm, said the film “taps into very modern fears without laying it on too thick,” stating the movie portrays paranoia and fear parents may feel after watching cable news. Evangelista called “Weapons” “one of the best horror movies of the year” and said Cregger is “one of the most exciting voices in the genre right now.” In a five-star review for the horror publication Dread Central, critic Josh Korngut praised the cast performances and called the movie “near-perfect,” calling it “shocking, original, and grotesquely funny all at once.” Some critics, including Rotten Tomatoes-approved Matt Neglia, felt the movie lost steam at the end, stating Cregger “missed an opportunity to tell a story that is more emotionally rich and relatable” and opted for a “facile solution.”

How Did The “weapons” Marketing Go Viral?

“Weapons” garnered attention in the spring for a marketing campaign some movie publications compared to that of the “Blair Witch Project” for its use of found footage and its realistic portrayal of the marketing materials. Warner Bros. published a video of surveillance footage on YouTube, titled “2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov,” which portrays children running through town in the middle of the night. The video is exactly two hours and 17 minutes long, similar to the time the children disappear in the movie: 2:17 a.m. The studio also published an online website, MaybrookMissing.com, which is fashioned like a local news outlet and contains news articles about the children who disappear from town in the film.

Surprising Fact

The bidding war to secure the rights to “Weapons” was reportedly intense, with multiple production companies making offers. New Line Cinema, a production company owned by Warner Bros., won the auction in January 2023 after making a $38 million offer, with Cregger earning $10 million and the ability to decide the final cut, a deal the Hollywood Reporter called “unprecedented” for a filmmaker who had only directed one movie before. Other companies that made bids include Universal Pictures and Monkeypaw Productions, the production company owned by horror director-producer Jordan Peele. Deadline reported Peele parted ways with his management shortly after losing the auction.

Further Reading

Summer Box Office Opening Forecasts For ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Weapons’, ‘Freakier Friday’ & More (Deadline)

New Line Wins Intense Auction for ‘Weapons,’ the New Movie From ‘Barbarian’ Filmmaker Zach Cregger (Hollywood Reporter)

Producers of Netflix reality show Building the Band are opening up on filming with guest judge Liam Payne and discussing the chances of a season two.

The contest — where 50 musicians form six bands without ever seeing each other — has landed in the streamer’s global top 10 shows since it dropped on the platform July 9, boasting Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and host A.J. Tracey among its celebrity panel.

Payne also stars as a judge on the show, filmed before his untimely death at just 31 in October 2024. Building the Band producers and Payne’s grieving family were weighing Payne’s inclusion, and ultimately decided to move forward with the former One Direction member remaining in the show made by Remarkable Entertainment (part of Banijay U.K.).

“Liam was conscientious, he was gracious and at times nervous, because I think he wanted to get it right for the bands,” executive producer Alison Holloway tells The Hollywood Reporter. “There was no question that he saw his own experience up there on our stage, and he felt he could give [the contestants] real advice based on where he had come from.”

Holloway says the cast and crew became a tight-knit group on Building the Band, and Payne went above and beyond on set. “We saw a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. He was in a good place. He was happy to work. He was excited by the project, and he loved the organic moments in the studio, connecting with the live studio audience,” she continues, discussing a moment in the recent season finale where the series paid tribute.

The final episode — where (spoilers!) girl group 3Quency were crowned winners — included a sweet behind-the-scenes moment of Payne, along with the words: “In loving memory of Liam Payne” as One Direction hit “What Makes You Beautiful” began blaring through speakers on set.

“When his life was cut short,” Holloway adds, “we were in in disbelief, and yet we knew that we had something that would be a wonderful legacy. And his family agreed. And when you look at those moments when he genuinely smiles on camera, he’s really in the moment and enjoying it. Just hang on to that smile.”

Remarkable Entertainment’s managing director Cat Lawson concurs, telling THR that the Building the Band team could only sing Payne’s praises. “Our experience with Liam was him coming not just on time but early, huge professionalism, ready to go, done his research, joyful, happy, loving life, loving being with the crew, loving being with the contestants.”

“He became family to all of us,” Lawson says, adding that extra care was taken to make sure that Payne’s joy was brought to the screen. She said his family, who often came to set and watched the singer shoot and perform, were heavily consulted about his inclusion in the series. “It was really important that the family really led the way and made the decision… They’ve just gone through the most traumatic experience, and it wouldn’t have been right for us to [air] the show without their blessing.”

Building the Band was born out of a brainstorm between Lawson and Simon Crossley, Remarkable’s director of development. Both are obsessed with pop music, she explains, and have been trying to crack the singing show genre for some time.

“What we realized when we looked at the U.S. Billboard charts and [bands] are just not there. And obviously One Direction were huge, and Little Mix were huge here in the U.K., but there hadn’t really been a breakthrough American band for a really long time,” she says.

The premise of making the contestants form bands without ever seeing what each other looked like was all about chemistry. “It was absolute magic,” Holloway says of the early test they did, where singers were separated by tents.

“The looks thing becomes a secondary piece of it,” Lawson says. “Our thinking was about the connection and the authenticity. You might have to be on a tour bus with these guys for 20 years — you’re all going to get older, you’re all going to get grayer, but what you can’t change is whether you guys get on.”

When it came to getting Scherzinger, Payne, Rowland and Tracey on board, the thinking was simple: “Wouldn’t it be amazing if everybody had been in that boy band, girl band experience?” Lawson recalls asking.

What transpired was a real passion for supporting these aspiring singers through their bid for the big time. Lawson says: “Sometimes you work on shows and talent walks in, walks out. It wasn’t like that [on Building the Band]. They were happy to spend time giving advice, which was just lovely.” Holloway adds: “They were all truly invested… I think it is captured in our show, and I think that’s what people are responding to.”

Lawson and Holloway tell THR that they are still chasing a season two commission. Season one has already built the foundations for their young stars to release singles — coming August, says Lawson — and the hope is that one day, these show-made bands will go on tour. “There’s noise around this show. And actually, I was just speaking to Netflix earlier, and I was [saying] you can see already there’s [social media] tribes forming around the bands,” adds Lawson.

Holloway already has “a wonderful piece of tape” with a brilliant singer for a season two. “He turned out to be six foot four, but for the first 30 seconds, all I heard was his voice and he is ready to go for the next season. For singers out there, it has opened a door, a new adventure. And with that, hopefully will come a wash of new talent, because it exists.”

All episodes of Building the Band are available to stream now on Netflix.

For non-fans, professional wrestling is a strange beast. Now imagine tasking one as the first to capture the chaos, confusion and total lack of kayfabe backstage. That’s the situation Chris Weaver — an NFL Films director used to filming, well, the NFL — stepped into for Netflix’s WWE: Unreal. His first chore? Learning the meaning of the word “kayfabe.”

kay·fabe
/ˈkāˌfāb/
noun
(in professional wrestling) the fact or convention of presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic.
“a masterful job of blending kayfabe and reality”

Lesson two was understanding how Paul Leveque, Triple H, Trips, HHH, H (and yes, “Hunter Hearst Helmsley”) is all one dude. Just wait ‘til Weaver finds out about blading…

All five episodes of the very all-access WWE: Unreal, which charts January’s 2025 Royal Rumble through April’s WrestleMania 41, are now available to obsessively binge stream on Netflix.

Read our Q&A with Weaver below.

***

As a wrestling fan who already knows too much about the inner-workings, I didn’t want this show to happen — but it turned out really good and I got more out of it than I thought I would.

Thank you very, very much. I’ve heard a lot of people — both in the industry and in the wrestling world — say — not that they’ve seen the show — that they don’t like the premise and the idea, but they’re really interested. Yeah, and I’m gonna bounce a little praise back to you, Tony, which is, since the trailer came out — I don’t do a ton of reading and reacting to, or see what the reactions are — but you win for the best trailer headline, the CM Punk thing.

I learned some things — I didn’t know that (recent WWE Superstars) Bobby Roode and Jason Jordan were now producing matches, for example.

That was something that we were highly interested in explaining to the world, for that reason. We don’t know how much people know the business is run by, you know, wrestlers, so to speak. I think every single producer is a former wrestler.

Another surprise for me was just how professionally everybody — down to the writers — dressed. Was that striking for you as well?

Yes, is the short answer. I noticed it right away. It’s something that we— if this show were to continue, I want to [get into] that at some point, because it is striking. I noticed it right away. I have my opinions on why that might be, I don’t really know. And I’ve asked about that, like, “Do you guys dress like this all the time?”

These are long days when you go to — they call them “TV” — when you go to TV, when you go to these events, for us, it’s about a 14 hour day. It is for a lot of them as well. And I was like, “You guys wear this everyday, even on a 14 hour day?” We’re pretty dressed down — NFL Films [is] very informal. I wear collared shirts, but that’s about the extent of how dressed up I would really get.

But I do find it interesting. I’ve never asked— I’ve only asked a couple people that, I shouldn’t say I’ve never asked. But the people I’ve asked have their own speculations. It’s never been like— it’s not like a dress code, that’s my understanding. At least it’s not like you’re required to wear that. I think some of that might just be Vince [McMahon] did that. Vince might have had more of an edict on that — I’m not sure. Like you, I agree, it struck me when I first saw it.

Was the genesis of WWE: Unreal sort of a Netflix demand as a companion program to Raw? Was this sort of unprecedented access a caveat to that $5 billion deal?

You know, we did Quarterback and Receiver, another season of Quarterback with Netflix. So we already have an understanding of…their sort of expectations and their— what they expect in a follow series like this, because of history. Now, and I don’t want to go into Quarterback, except to say that I was heavily involved in that first season as well, and that was more of a journey of exploration. And I remember we— I watched [shows like Full Swing and Formula 1: Drive to Survive] when we were starting Quarterback, to just see how it was approached, and what the commonalities were…we learned more on those shows how to get to where we are in WWE: Unreal, but this is a different beast. So there were similarities and there were differences, but generally we had an understanding of what Netflix wanted.

You had very good access here, but we don’t see some places, like the locker room, which is considered sacred in wrestling. Where couldn’t you film?

That’s always my one of my fears is, I hope people don’t watch this and go, “Well, there’s not that much access” — so I love hearing you say that. When we started the process and we had our very first meetings (with WWE), we’re like, “Listen, we’ve seen a lot of stuff in our history here, and you gotta trust us. Let us just film it. You won’t regret…”— you’re basically asking them for trust. And they said, “Yep, we’re gonna let you.” And they did. I think the only thing I can think of— I don’t remember ever being told “no” to something. There may have been suggestions, like, “ Man, you don’t really want to do that,” or something. But we never got a hard “no” from WWE.

I will say, the first event we scouted— we scouted an event here in Philly, early on before we started actually filming. It was a Raw or SmackDown, I can’t remember honestly in November. We went to kind of get the lay of the land, and somebody had kind of said, “Listen, that’s the locker room. Don’t go in the locker room unless a wrestler tells you to come in the locker room. So that was sort of the only place I can remember. And again, it wasn’t, “Don’t go in there, but it was like, you’d be wise to be careful, because you don’t want to turn off somebody in there.” That’s the only thing I can think of.

Did you feel like an WWE talent or executives ramped it up for your benefit, or did you get the sense that their behavior was exactly what it would have been had your cameras not been there?

I mean, generally the latter. You can never really know how genuine anybody is — not just in wrestling — but how genuine anyone is when you put a camera in front of them, right? And what I would say is, the entire thing could have been “fake,” so to speak, or have been staged, or kayfabed, however you want to frame it. But if it is, they did such an exceptional job, I can live with it, so to speak. You know, CM Punk…crying after the WrestleMania (41), main event— I think that’s Phil Brooks having an emotional moment when he’s talking to me. Can somebody argue that he’s, you know, performing and turning it up a notch for the cameras? Yeah, you could say that, but I didn’t feel that, and I don’t know that.

It’s a good question, and I’ve actually thought about this quite a bit going into the project, throughout the project, now that we’ve sort of wrapped it up. But the answer is, I don’t know how genuine anyone is at any given moment. Certainly when you add cameras, and [WWE Superstars are] excellent performers, and I’ll add this: it’s not really your question, but the interviews I got to do on this project— everybody kind of said, “You’re going to get good interviews, because these people are performers…” But it far-exceeded what I ever anticipated. I’ve done hundreds of interviews for NFL Films over the years, and I can tell you, the Michael Hayes interview is — it blows away — it’s my favorite interview I’ve ever done.

So that’s a longwinded way of saying, I don’t know, but my impression was we’re getting the authentic side of these people. Listen, there’s a lot of cameras around. They’re shooting — you know, WWE has different groups shooting — we’re shooting. There’s the network cameras for the broadcast. And [the wrestlers] would often say, “Am I supposed to be in character?” [And we were like], “No, this is NFL Films for the Netflix show.” And they go, “Got it.” And so a lot of them would ask and want to be sure, and that was another indicator to me that we’re seeing Phil Brooks or, you know, whatever their real names are in each case, but I think we got the most authentic side of a lot of these people.

Were all of your sit down interviews after WrestleMania (41)?

I don’t think I want to detail too much about that. Short answer is no. Frankly, I’d have to think about it. I don’t know the exact schedule, and I’m not sure that any of them were after [WrestleMania].

We see in your show that Triple H said Tiffany Stratton has to apologize to Charlotte Flair after cutting a harsh promo about her divorce from Andrade. We don’t see her apologizing, but they seem to have reconciled by WrestleMania. Did Tiffany apologize to Charlotte?

I don’t. I don’t know if that happened. It’s not something we captured if it did. And again, you know, that could have been a locker room [conversation], frankly, but the short answer is, I’m not sure.

A few wrestlers get really bloody over the course of the five episodes. Some definitely look like the hard way (a legitimate cut that happens when fighting), but did you ever get into conversation about blading (purposefully slicing one’s own skin mid-match with a razor blade)?

No, never did. It’s the kind of thing that I didn’t even know about. But, you know, again, Eric Powers, my [showrunner], sort of explained a lot of that to me. And like some of the verbiage they’ve used, I guess, historically. But no, it never came up. I’m trying to think of, what was it? K.O. and Cody’s (Royal Rumble) match?

And I’d hate to be an authority on that, but my memory is — or what I understand of that, that was authentic and real. I think there was enough evidence that we thought it was real, and so we didn’t feel the need to ask about it.

Why did Cena decline to answer your pretty basic question about the heel turn after it happened?

Yeah, the heel turn — it occurred — and he didn’t want to do any detailing, because the story isn’t over yet when the show comes out, right? That was sort of the way I took it, and he might have messaged it to us even off camera, was the story’s not over. So he didn’t want to dive too far into it?

Was he more protective of the business than others you interviewed? Like, CM Punk, for example?

Yes.

Did any wrestlers that you wanted decline to participate? How did you pick your roster?

I would say no. Once we started understanding where their (story) arcs were headed, we sent them what we thought would work well, and I don’t think anybody turned us down. It was up to WWE Talent Relations to help us get the time with the talent, but nobody said no. When we had this meeting back in October to sort of decide if we were gonna produce [the show], Hunter said, “There’s going to be some old heads that might not want to deal with you guys, and might even be turned off, and might even kind of push you away.”

And so I went in very unsure about how we would be received. And I was pleasantly, I think, surprised is the word, that everybody we worked with — from the top to the performers to the executives, to the crew on the ground, the day-to-day people — everybody was extremely warm and welcoming. Everybody we asked for ended up in the show.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Name: Cat videos.

Age: 131.

Appearance: Legitimate entertainment.

Hang on, cat videos are 131 years old? Clearly, you have never seen The Boxing Cats, a 20-second film of two cats wearing boxing gloves and brawling inside a miniature ring. It was made by Thomas Edison’s production studio in 1894 and can be found in the Library of Congress.

So what you’re saying is that humanity hasn’t progressed meaningfully in almost a century and a half? No, I’m saying that there is something vital about the appeal of cat videos and the manner in which they have evolved with us.

But also … Well, yes, humans have always been easily pleased idiots.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, why are we talking about them today? Oh, because CatVideoFest 2025 is preparing to launch.

WhatVideoFest? Do keep your finger on the pulse, please. Every year since 2016, Will Braden has painstakingly assembled a compilation of online videos and public submissions into CatVideoFest, a feature-length, theatrically released montage of cat videos.

Seriously, is this a thing? Not only is it a thing, but it’s a wildly successful one at that. The 2021 edition grossed just $94,000 at the box office, but last year’s took more than a million dollars. If the series continues to get 10 times more successful every three years, CatVideoFest 2036 will be the most successful movie of all time.

So, is it any good? Sort of. Anyone who took their kids to see CatVideoFest 2024 will know that a nonstop barrage of cat videos starts to drag after about 20 minutes. But, boy, those opening 20 minutes were amazing.

What sort of cat videos do the films contain? Oh, all the fan favourites. You can probably expect videos of cats sneaking up on people, cats knocking stuff off tables and cats climbing up things.

What about videos of cats using toilets? Ah, a classic of the genre. I didn’t realise that I was dealing with a connoisseur.

Of course. Barely a day passes when I don’t watch the 2011 hit “Cat walking on two legs 2”. Yes, I think my favourite part of that is when … hey, are we just linking to cat videos now? I thought this was a serious website.

No, this is a discussion of how cinemas are learning to adapt to new audiences during a time of industry-wide constriction. Very intelligent. Almost as intelligent as the cat who opened a door for its owner who forgot her keys.

But what does this say about us as a society? Look, the world is a mess. Please just let us dissociate in front of some cat videos.

Do say: “CatVideoFest will save us all.”

Don’t say: “It can’t be any worse than The Smurfs.”